Tracing can certainly be useful if you can't quite figure something out or need the rough flow. But yeah, it's definitely an issue if it's blatant in the final product. Even if it's just a comic you're doing for fun, if you're caught tracing, it will ruin your chances of getting anywhere.
And to be quite honest, it does look like that. Like I said, I don't know anime well enough, but the skill of the line work and the skill of the composition/anatomy/action are completely incongruous. The actual line work has the quality of someone who's still fairly new and learning, but other aspects (faces, action, etc) have a quality that you'd see in the professional work of someone who's been drawing for decades. But only sometimes.
Just pulling the panels from above:
This one I have no doubt is original. Anatomy, composition, line work all appear to be at the same skill level.
But then theres....
I know I've seen this face, or at least pieces of it before. I want to say Bleach or Naruto, but it's been years so I can't be certain. What I do know is that it doesn't quite track with the one above.
But the real elephant in the room......There's a lot of Dragon Ball Z in there. I mean
Even I know that's Vegeta or some other saiyan type. (from the end of "Chapter 1 Prolog")
So I would strongly suggest checking with your artist about what "references" they're using and speak to them about using or tracing assets from other artists. Especially from super iconic anime sources.